Manufacture of acids and salts from gums



} plexity of such raw materia Patented Jan. 19, 1954 OFFICE;

MANUFACTURE OF ACIDS AND sAjL'Is FROM GUMS. U v

Will am H.- Wood, Un t m sfits} hio 'as- 'si'gno'r toHarris-ScyboldCompany," qleyei ,ji Q F.EQWP M F D a Kama-wing ApplicationJuan-9,1948,- v

a ia1sNo.a4.1

Natural gums, while haying, some properties adapting them to certinuses;hal fothg l ropg erties which greatly limit their scopqor possibleutilities, It haslo'ng been'reco'gniz'ed asde that these limitations be"0 to detrimental breakdown in'gross' "chemical p119 cedures haveobstructed'prfogress in 61115 d rection. 'It has been known, 'r riinstacatnatg marabic dissolved in water couldfbetreatedwith hydrochloricacid" and-1 then; an y rous? alcohol could be'added to form apreeipitatefanfd. this;

precipitate could be separated and wa es with alcohol to yield a'producti'of 'arabic 'acid. The

necessary repeated res-disjolving'iand r.+prec ipi tatingfrequifedbysuch process, I ia'tedious and suc 193:6:1

ha t asf "d they have poor keeping,

expensive manufacturin' gfl 'schedu nets 7 as thus. heretofore, attainpI-Iofabout 3.3, a I I V I qualities in solution,"beingfsusceptible to.bactea mold t ck-f a' s rdala awi aithe present invention, however, it Inow becomes 7 pos;

om an? arab sibleto attain acid productsf l ndi h rj wa r b ble'v um(which a p H materially lower in numericalyalue land whichare in effecttruly. acids as contrasted with. the.

mixed products heretoforeicornrnercially lknow,n;v r

a ab e come, but theta?! p v operation with gum andits vulnerabilityButfas noted, the con 11 and the present products resist"decomposition;V

, acids ay firtha n 'on 'er df' nto m t l,

salts having'ne'w and useful properties.

h v Other cts and advantagcsflof the invention will appear from thefollowing description.

T0 he sco l bmsaa 9i ea fs q s a related ends, the'in'venti n, then, cql nririse s" the features hereinafter ifullif d'scrib'd "andparticularly pointed out in the claims; the following ode-s scription"setting forth. in detail certain illustra tive embodiments of theinvention, these being 'comes possble to att a" n for-m, he appliedindicative, however, oflhut a few-of the various ways in irfl cr meinvention ay be e loyed As raw materials, water-soluble naturally;occurring gums, or water solu'ble constituents 'of which are salts ofstrong organic acids .are applicable. Such are, for instance, gumarabic, mesquite gum,""gh atti V brea g umf'etc'. The soluble portionsof partially soluble gums are illustrated,

for instance, by such-portion ofg'u'm' tra ga'ciant h, s

naturally occurring gums,

gum; tahla gum,

gum karaya, etc. Whether the gum be'in true cation-exchange resin suchafford a 45,, v t. "acidi hepHJ s solution or in dispersion sufficientfor the proq? essing' is equivalent. "Theconen'tration 'of the. 5 gum insuch solution mayheguidedsornwhat des es concentration of the ultimatesolution to be pm-r by it's degree ofsdlublliliyj misty,

c v ld t z ia is udias dirt. 'Then thesoluti products 6 of the prescontaining tojthee lu n; this; t int state-e u.

it may e and thereaft b al the oduasw be: used dir ctl solution form)and'by; considerations of; via-'- cositylimitation asapt to afiectthroughputi etc. For instance, a i conyen concentration .;for any a saround 1272 perc t.

swidelmandas an illustrl' ei g? 30 percent, The um solutin-,is;desirably te ed t m vera 99d: and ndi ei tion of a cationexchanincludes complex" 'si lica of acid treated zeolite m er ls i q i l th'um ne 8111 m c d itha rs .0 Sy

lp 01 1? l p re, 91dv under) Arnberlitef Qn e'i;xc r l e high moleculathe fourth arou i'e emei etc.) These'p which the i ve yo boundhydrogenl. 5 91 375 a e ma li nt a tna V. k s And'forlinstancea 0 mm;such asof largc plp e. diameter, with s tab, at mgggrid. a'y'tutrwbottornand severa fee of ularffilling of a" rela yrlays a stance, witha' 'ZO p'e cen ru through such an uct s lutionrna reasin "c eates V a Nifor instance;

Such arabic acid, or other gum acid, as the case may be, depending uponthe particular rawv material, may be used as such in the solution such adried product may. be re-dissolved without difliculty, in contrast todry preparations of gum acids commonly heretofore available, thisdiffer,- ence perhaps being due to absence of retrograde changeoccurring in the old treatment with mineral acid. This productfurthermore is remarkable for its keeping properties. This is whollyunexpected and surprising, as the acid-precipitated products heretoforeknown, and even laboratory dialyzed products, have poor keepingqualities, being susceptible to rapid bacterial and mold attack. It iswell known that even with addition of the most efficient antisepticsobtainable, the keeping of commercial products hereto- .fore known hasbeen unsatisfactory. The reason for this difference in the presentproduct is not known, but apparently impurities which would supportbacterial and mold' growth are removed sufliciently in even one pass inthe present treatment to yield products commercially satisfactorywithout addition of antiseptics.

Such acid product as obtained foregoing may be next converted intometallic salts of novel and useful properties, and thus by reacting thearabic acid or other gum acid solution with a suitable metallic agent,such as freshly-precipitated iron carbonates, the iron salt of thearabic acid or other gum acid is attained, and such salt is found tohave properties suiting it for preparation of light-sensitive papers,pigments, and as a medicinal preparation for administration of iron,etc. By similarly reacting with a suitable copper compound, such ascarbonate, the copper salt of arabic acid or other gum acid is obtained,and this salt is found to have properties fitting it for fungicidalusage as in horticultural spraying, and as an addition agent inelectroplating, etc. And likewise by reactingwith silver carbonate, thesilver salt of the arabic acid or other gum acid is obtained, and thissalt is found to have antiseptic properties which render. it suitablefor use ophthalmic infections and the like in place of silver nitrateand organic compounds of silver. Also such silver compounds are suitablefor lightsensitive usages. Similarly, other metallic neutralizers orprecipitants may be employed, to the attainment of the correspondingmetal salt of the gum acid, and chromium salts and various others thusare available; 3

Other modes of applying the principle of the invention may be employed,change being made as regards the detail described, provided the featuresstated in any of the following claims, or the equivalent of such, beemployed.

I therefore particularly point out and distinctly claim as my invention:

1. A process of making products from gums, comprising dissolving anaturally occurring exudate gum in water, separating any foreignparticles, and reacting the dissolved gum with a cation exchange complexselected from the group consisting of sulphuric acid-treatedcarbonaceous materials, acid-treated zeolites andphenolformaldehyde-sulphonic acid resins so as to decompose the gum andsplit the acid organic molecular portion from the combined bases andprevent degradation breakdown of the organic portion and eliminate.materials which support bacterial and mold growth to form adecomposition-reslsting product.

2. A process of making a product from gum arabic, comprising dissolvinggum arabic in water, separating any foreign particles, and reacting thedissolved gum arabic with a cation exchange complex selected from thegroup consisting of sulphuric acid-treated carbonaceous materials,acid-treated zeolites and phenol-formaldehydesulphonic acid resins so asto decompose the gum and split the acid organic molecular portion fromthe combined bases and prevent degradation breakdown of the organicportion and eliminate materials which. support bacterial and mold growthto form a decomposition-resisting product.

3. A process of making products from gums, comprising dissolving anaturally occurring exudate gum in water, separating any foreignparticles, and reacting the dissolved gum with a cation exchangecomplexselected from the group consisting of sulphuricacid-treatedcarbonaceous materials, acid-treated zeolites andphenol-formaldehyde-sulphonic acid resins so as to decompose the gum andsplit the acid organic molecular portion from the combined bases andprevent degradation breakdown of the organic portion and eliminatematerials which support bacterial and mold growth to form adecomposition-resisting product, and finally neutralizing the soformedacid organic molecular portion with a carbonate of carbonate-formingmetal of molecular weight 56408 selected from the group consisting ofiron, copper and silver.

4. A process of making a product from gum arabic, comprising dissolvinggum arabic in Wa er, p r g y foreign particles, and reacting thedissolved gum arabic with a cation exchange complex selected from thegroup consisting of sulphuric acid-treated carbonaceous materials,acid-treated zeolites and phenol-formaldehyde-sulphonic acid resins soas to decompose the gum and split the acid organic molecular portionfrom the combined bases and prevent degradation breakdown of the organicportion and eliminate materials which support bacterial and mold growthto form a decomposition-resisting product, and finally neutralizing thesoformed acid organic molecular portion with a carbonate ofcarbonate-forming metal of molecular weight 56-108 selected from thegroup consisting of-iron, copper and silver.

- WILLIAM H. WOOD.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number7 OTHER REFERENCES Chem. Abstracts, vol. 23, pp. 3388 to 3389, 5382(1929).

Walder: Food, 1 page. Krantz et al.: J. Am. Pharm. Assoc, v. 18 (1929),pp. 463-4, 2 pp.

Briggs: J. Phys. Chem., v. 38 (1934), pp. 86'?- 869, 3 pp.

Ryznar: Ind. Eng. Chem., v. 36 (1944), pp. 821- 823, 3 pp.

Mantell: Water-Soluble Gums, pp. 35 to 44 1219;72 published byReinholdPublishing Corp.,

Ion Exchange, Chemical Engineering, July 1947; pp. 123 to 130. H

v. 18 (January 1949), page 5,

1. A PROCESS OF MAKING PRODUCTS FROM GUMS, COMPRISING DISSOLVING ANATURALLY OCCURRING EXUDATE GUM IN WATER, SEPARATING ANY FOREIGNPARTICLES, AND REACTING THE DISSOLVED GUM WITH A CATION EXCHANGE COMPLEXSELECTED FROM THE GROUP CONSISTING OF SULPHURIC ACID-TREATEDCARBONACEOUS MATERIALS, ACID-TREATED ZEOLITES ANDPHENOLFORMALDEHYDE-SULPHONIC ACID RESINS SO AS TO DECOMPOSE THE GUM ANDSPLIT THE ACID ORGANIC MOLECULAR PORTION FROM THE COMBINED BASES ANDPREVENT DEGRADATION BREAKDOWN OF THE ORGANIC PORTION AND ELIMINATEMATERIALS WHICH SUPPORT BACTERIAL AND MOLD GROWTH TO FORM ADECOMPOSITION-RESISTING PRODUCT.